Tributes as original Radio 1 DJ Dave Cash dies suddenly after a career spanning half a century

Broadcaster joined Tony Blackburn, Jimmy Young and Ed Stewart for the pop music station's launch before forming partnership with Kenny Everett

A member of Radio One ’s original DJ line-up has died suddenly after a career spanning 50 years.

Dave Cash, who joined Tony Blackburn , Ed Stewart and Jimmy Young as one of the popular station’s launch DJs in the late sixties, collapsed at his home last week at the age of 74.

The broadcaster began his career in Canada in the late 1950s, where he had been visiting with the British Merchant Navy, before going on to work for Radio London, Capital Radio and Radio One.

After returning to Britain in the early Sixties, aged 21, Cash joined pirate station Radio London.

When parliament outlawed pirate stations, he moved to the multilingual Radio Luxembourg - where he worked alongside Noel Edmonds and formed his first radio partnership with Kenny Everett.

Cash became one of the DJs at Radio One at its launch in 1967, presenting a number of daily shows and becoming one of London’s most eligible bachelors - having been photographed at top nightclubs with beautiful models and in an Aston Martin.

He was billed as the station’s first casualty when he got dropped from its roster in April 1970, after the controversial BBC document Broadcasting in the Seventies outlined the reduction in hours and saw it separated from Radio 2.

Three years later, Cash, from Hollingbourne, Kent, joined Capital Radio - where he stayed for 21 years - reprising the Kenny and Cash Show with friend Kenny Everett, hosting a lunchtime quiz competition called ‘Cash on Delivery’ and also several weekend shows for Capital Gold.

Outside radio, the DJ hosted several episodes of TV show Top of the Pops, but the only episode that survives in the BBC archives is a February 1968 show he hosted alongside disgraced Jimmy Savile.

Cash also wrote three novels, released between 1991 and 1995, and began working on a new book in 2006 which was designed to be both an autobiography and history of pirate radio.

For the last 17 years of his career, he worked for a number of local BBC radio stations in the south, including Radio Kent, Oxford, Solent and Surrey.

His last radio show for BBC’s local southern stations was on October 15, when he paid tribute to Bob Dylan and remembered his days hosting with Kenny Everett.

Tony Blackburn paid tribute to his former colleague on Twitter, saying: “So sad to hear the news that my old friend Dave Cash has died. He was a nice guy and very talented. R.I.P. you will be missed by us all.”

Johnnie Walker, a fellow sixties pirate radio DJ, tweeted: “Very upset to hear sad news about Dave Cash. A great DJ & a great friend for 50 years, we’ll all miss him very much. Love you Dave.”